Dear Friends

Easter is not far off with its unique challenge upon our lives. That challenge is not to
eat as much chocolate as possible in a single day (however much the retail trade
might be encouraging us to), but rather to believe that Jesus Christ truly rose from
the dead.
Belief in Christ’s Resurrection is fundamental and essential to being a Christian.
Why? Because unless we can believe in a God who raised Jesus from the dead, we
will never have the courage, faith, and joy to discover the truth of what A.J. Tozer
writes in The Divine Conquest:
‘The man who takes his cross and follows Christ will soon find that his direction is
away from the sepulchre. Death is behind him and a joyous and increasing life
before’.
Unless we believe that Christ is risen, how can we have the confidence that all that
Jesus said about himself and all that he promised was, and is, true? Unless we
believe that Christ is risen we will never have the faith and trust in God that we need
to lay aside our own ambitions, desires and wants to seek his will for our lives rather
than our own – for that is what it means to take up our cross daily and follow Christ.
If we have no confidence in our guide why should we follow him, even if he promises
that he is leading us into a more fulfilling and satisfying life?
St Paul knew this to be true when he wrote these words, ‘If Christ has not been
raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith…. And if Christ has not been
raised, your faith is futile… If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be
pitied more than all men.’ (1Corinthians 15).
Paul could write such challenging words because he knew that Christ had been
raised – he had encountered the risen Christ for himself and such an encounter left
him a changed man.
Believing in the risen Christ isn’t like believing in ‘fairies at the bottom of the garden’.
We are called to question, explore, and challenge our belief – just as those first
disciples did when they were told that Jesus had risen from the dead, and just like
countless others have done down through the ages.
This Easter, come and join us in our celebration of the truth of the risen Christ – a
truth that means death is not the end; that suffering does not have the last word; and
that in Christ we can find forgiveness, renewal, and new-life where we are tired,
broken and lost – or as Tozer writes, ‘That life which goes to the cross and loses

itself there to rise again with Christ is a divine and deathless treasure.’
This Easter come and join us in that great shout of acclamation:-
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Yours in Christ,
Simon